The opening show “Velvet Nights” hosted by FR!TZ EYEWEAR at Vienna’s MuseumsQuartier offered more than a first look at the week ahead. It set the tone for six days of fashion, emerging talent, established names, international exchange and a growing conversation around circularity.
There is a particular energy to the beginning of a fashion week. Before the collections have fully revealed themselves, before the runway settles into its rhythm, there is anticipation — a sense that something is about to unfold.
On Monday evening, that feeling filled Vienna’s MuseumsQuartier. Halle E became a meeting point for designers, creatives, media, personalities and fashion enthusiasts as the Opening Show of VIENNA FASHION WEEK.26 officially opened this year’s 18th edition.
Organised by Elvyra Geyer, Zigi Mueller-Matyas and Maria Oberfrank, VIENNA FASHION WEEK has become a distinctive fixture of Vienna’s cultural and fashion landscape. The Opening Show brought together the atmosphere of the city’s fashion scene in one concentrated evening — familiar faces, established designers, young talent and an audience ready to see what comes next. But the opening night was never intended to tell the whole story. It was the prologue.
Before the first looks appeared on the runway, the evening already offered a glimpse of the social landscape surrounding Austrian fashion.
The red carpet welcomed a cross-section of Vienna’s cultural, media and creative scene. Among the guests were Atil Kutoglu, Alex Kiesling, Gitti Krenn, Kerstin Lechner, Eser Akaba, Kathi Stumpf, Gerry Kessler and Markus Morianz, alongside numerous other personalities from fashion, entertainment and society.
Among the personalities associated with the opening night were also actress Patricia Aulitzky, actor Stefano Bernardin, Eurovision star Cesar Sampson, publishers Christian and Ekaterina Mucha, singers Doretta Carter, Sandra Pires and Kim Cooper, and musician Lukas Fendrich. The evening therefore reflected something essential about Vienna’s fashion scene: its close connection to the city’s wider cultural and creative community.
It was a distinctly Viennese fashion-week scene — polished, eclectic and deeply connected to the city’s wider cultural life.
A WEEK DISTILLED INTO ONE RUNWAY
The Opening Show offered a carefully curated glimpse of the creative landscape that will unfold throughout the week: different aesthetics, generations and approaches to fashion brought together in a single evening. That is perhaps the most compelling quality of an opening show. It gives you enough to understand the mood — without giving everything away.
Among the guests was internationally acclaimed Austrian designer Atil Kutoglu, whose presence added an established international perspective to the evening. Alongside him, young designer Nicolas Dudek represented a new generation already attracting considerable attention within Austria’s fashion scene.
Vienna’s fashion landscape is not defined by one generation or one aesthetic. Its energy comes from the dialogue between established voices and designers who are beginning to shape what comes next. The Opening Show made that dialogue visible. The evening was hosted by Sylvia Graf, who guided the audience through the opening programme before the runway gave way to the more relaxed atmosphere of the evening’s Come Together. What began as a formal fashion presentation continued as a social gathering — with guests networking, exchanging impressions and discussing the collections and trends to come.
That transition from runway to conversation is an essential part of the Vienna Fashion Week experience. Because a fashion week is never only about what happens on the catwalk. It is also about who gathers around it.
THE NEXT GENERATION IS ALREADY HERE
One of the strongest threads running through VIENNA FASHION WEEK.26 is the focus on new talent. The Atena Neuhuber Fashion Academy is one of the week’s early highlights, placing emerging designers and new creative perspectives in the spotlight. On September 16, THE NEXT GENERATION takes the idea further, bringing Dew & Juju, Maria Lingenover and Konstantin Theodor together in a dedicated showcase. Rather than treating emerging talent as an appendix to the established fashion system, the programme gives it a central position.
That feels significant. Fashion weeks are often measured by the names already known. But their cultural relevance can also be found in the names audiences are encountering for the first time. The next generation does not simply inherit the fashion landscape. It begins to redefine it.
VIENNA LOOKING OUTWARD
On September 17, DITP Thailand brings Frank Weeneggsinn, NICHP and Rose Mars to the MuseumsQuartier, introducing contemporary Thai fashion perspectives to the Vienna audience.
It is one of the week’s key international moments — and another indication that Vienna’s fashion scene increasingly sees itself as part of a wider creative exchange. The question is no longer simply what Austrian fashion looks like. It is where Austrian fashion can connect.
BEYOND THE RUNWAY
Across Halle E and Halle G, VIENNA FASHION WEEK.26 creates two sides of the same experience: the runway as spectacle, and fashion as something to encounter at close range.
While Halle E provides the stage for the shows and presentations, Halle G – Shopping Area & Pop-up Store becomes a destination in its own right from September 16 to 19.
Visitors can discover participating labels, explore pieces up close and encounter fashion beyond the choreography of a runway show. The official shopping programme brings together labels including Empowerment Studio, Fröhlich presented by Saubermacher, Pitour, Plural, ROEE, Rose Mars, Frank Weeneggsinn and The Next Generation, alongside further designers and brands.
VIENNA FASHION WEEK.26 HIGHLIGHTS
Circularity Takes the Conversation Further. On September 18, Saubermacher brings circular fashion into focus with the talk “Mode endet nicht. Sie beginnt neu.” The discussion explores what happens to textiles after their first life — from collection and recycling to new materials and design. The conversation is followed by FRÖHLICH presented by SAUBERMACHER, bringing the idea of circularity back onto the runway.
The Fashion Talks add another layer to the week, connecting fashion with culture, trends, sustainability and the industry itself.
Meanwhile, Halle G’s Shopping Area & Pop-up Store brings designers and audiences closer together — turning the fashion-week experience from something to watch into something to discover, touch and take home.
The week builds towards its finale with Elke Freytag and the collaborative presentation of Kokoknit & Grünschnabel & Gänseblümchen, before culminating in the LOOK! Fashion Night powered by Suzuki and Atil Kutoglu’s Closing Show.
A fashion week of this scale is a collective effort. The VIENNA FASHION WEEK partner network brings together public and location partners, supporting companies, media partners and creative organisations — with Saubermacher adding a particularly relevant perspective on circularity this year.
The Opening Show did not attempt to define Vienna fashion in one image. Instead, it offered a glimpse of its many directions — from established names to emerging talent, international exchange to circular design. The first glimpse has been given. Now the week unfolds.
Title Image © Stefan J. Wolf
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